Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 05.29.26 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Driving To Your Future About this episode Friday - Clark Stinks day! Lane (Clark’s wife!) shares Clark Stinks posts with Clark. Submit yours at Clark.com/ClarkStinks. Also today - A shocking 81% of consumers admit to routinely making impulse buys. But while small impulse buys hurt your weekly budget, there is one major lifestyle purchase that can absolutely sabotage long-term wealth: our second biggest purchase in life - a vehicle. The average cost of a car has climbed to a whopping $50,000, yet we still get tired of our rides and cycle through them too quickly. By making a single change to how, what, and how often you buy an automobile over your working lifetime—and investing those savings into the stock market instead—you could easily put an extra $250,000 directly into your pocket by the time you retire. Use our Wealth Impact Calculator to turbocharge your retirement savings today: All this and more on the May 29, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show. Clark Stinks: Segments 1 & 2 Car Buying & Your Retirement: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: What Is an HSA Account and How Does It Work? - Clark Howard Is a 401(k) Loan a Good Idea? Almost Never - Clark Howard 401(k) Loan Calculator - Clark Howard Why Does My Locked Credit Card Still Allow Charges? - Clark Howard Lost Your Credit Card? How To Place a Temporary Freeze on Your Account How To Get a Gym Membership for Practically Free - Clark Howard USA TODAY: Why you keep impulse buying, even when broke A Single Change to Your Car-Buying Habits Could Add $250,000 to Retirement Calculator: Wealth Impact of Buying Cars The Best Car-Buying Services - Clark Howard Do I Need a Mechanic Inspection When Buying a Used Car from CarMax or Carvana? 5 Best Places To Buy Pet Medicines - Clark Howard Clark.com resources: Episode transcripts Community. Clark.com / Ask Clark Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1:20 Speaker 02 It's great to have you here on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. And today is my favorite day of the week because it's Clark Stinks. And this is the first time ever that my wife, Laine, gets to lay out how I stink in her opinion.
1:47 Speaker 03 Wait, where am I? I'm not on this list.
1:50 Speaker 02 Anyway, my wife, Laine, is here being Krista today. And if you missed Wednesday's podcast, you don't know. Krista and I couldn't coordinate vacation this time. So she will be here next Friday with Next Friday's Clark Stinks. Laine will be here today and be on Monday and Wednesday's podcast. Thank you for doing it.
2:12 Speaker 03 Of course.
2:13 Speaker 02 And coming up later, the second biggest purchase most of us make is when we buy a car. I got some stats that show what a difference when and what you buy can make in your financial future. But now it's time for the Lane edition of Clark Stinks.
2:37 Speaker 04 I should have never encouraged you to speak.
2:39 Speaker 05 You must think I'm pretty stupid. You should be ashamed of yourself. Well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong.
2:44 Speaker 02 Maybe you're right, pal.
2:48 Speaker 02 All right, Lane, you're up. Do you want to, do you want to start with Clark's?
2:53 Speaker 03 Yeah, I'm looking for mine on here. I'm not seeing it.
2:57 Speaker 02 You got one you want to do?
2:58 Speaker 03 No, not today. Not for public consumption.
3:02 Speaker 02 Oh, oh, boy.
3:05 Speaker 03 Just kidding, just kidding. Okay. All right. So we have a first Clark Stinks from Kelly in Wisconsin. And she says, Clark, Mr. Clark, I know, you know, you're in trouble. I am disappointed in you. You're missing out on three more ways to save money. The first is to watch household auctions and for estate sales. I scored a couch at one with brand new tags for $11 because no one wanted it. The second one is to watch for citywide cleanup. Boy, have I gotten some nice things from Curb for free. Just watch the weather for chances of rain while you're hunting. And the last is to hit up farmers markets. If you time it right, before they
3:50 Speaker 03 close, you can get some really great discounts. She says she loves the show and the information you give.
3:56 Speaker 02 All right. So Kelly, thank you for what you said. Remember when I came home with a piece of furniture?
4:03 Speaker 03 Yes.
4:04 Speaker 02 I was driving down the road and there was an estate sale and pulled up, parked the car, went inside, saw something that I didn't even call you and ask. You bought a piece of furniture.
4:16 Speaker 03 It was big, too.
4:16 Speaker 02 Yeah. Somebody, another nice person at the estate sale helped me, put it in the vehicle and brought it home.
4:24 Speaker 03 Actually, I really liked it. It was, it was nice looking.
4:27 Speaker 02 Really?
4:28 Speaker 03 Yeah.
4:28 Speaker 02 Never said that about any furniture I've ever, anyway, so, great suggestion, absolutely. The, you mentioned the farmer's markets as they come to the end of a day is a way to save money. Thank you for mentioning that. A lot of supermarkets now are doing that kind of variable pricing, particularly in their bakery departments where late in the day, items are cut in price that are gonna have to be thrown out anyway. And I love that. And you doing the equivalent of dumpster diving at the curb, that is a great thing. I don't know if you know this, ever since COVID, when New York City went on strict
5:09 Speaker 02 lockdown, it's become a thing that on Sundays, people who are trying to get rid of furniture, put it out on the curb. And it is the most perfect recycling because I'd say 80, 90% of that stuff is gone before Monday morning with people who have a chair or a dresser or whatever they don't need anymore, want anymore. And they put it out and somebody comes along and just grabs it. And were you with me or was Grant with me the day that these two women were picking up an item in a Honda Accord that they had seen on the curb?
5:48 Speaker 03 That must have been Grant.
5:49 Speaker 02 We were trying to help them get it into the Honda Accord and it wouldn't fit. And we kept trying different ways. And so this was on one of the side streets in New York. Finally, I said, you know, you're gonna have to rent a truck to do it. And they said, well, it's not worth that.
6:08 Speaker 03 And then they're gone.
6:08 Speaker 02 So we, we take it back out of the back of the Honda Accord, put it back for somebody else. And they drove on their merry way.
6:16 Speaker 03 Oh, they couldn't make it work.
6:17 Speaker 02 Couldn't make it work.
6:18 Speaker 03 How many blocks away did they live? It's New York. You put it on the subway. We, we tried to put a piece of furniture on the subway.
6:25 Speaker 02 We, we did. That didn't work well.
6:28 Speaker 03 Didn't work. Nope, didn't work. All right. Onto other things. We've got Paul from Virginia, who's, oh, wow. He says, Clark, Pepe La Pue has nothing on you. Your answer to the guy who asked if it was okay to buy a boat was less than fragrant. First, I've known several people who live on their boats, meaning that they can enjoy the water while avoiding the expense of buying or renting traditional housing. This doesn't work in all climates, but for some people, it's perfect. Second, I have a friend who owned a beautiful sailboat and put it in a lease-back program with a marina. The company chartered the boat, handling all the rental arrangements while guaranteeing
7:11 Speaker 03 my friend use of the boat when he wanted it, and provided him with a percentage of the rental revenues. The marina also handled the slip fees, maintenance, and insurance. There are certainly issues to consider with this arrangement, but in the time that he owned the boat, he got to enjoy it and broke even financially.
7:30 Speaker 02 Really?
7:31 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm. And finally, you might remove your green eye shades on occasion. Can family memories that revolve around a boat be measured financially? Perhaps not.
7:43 Speaker 02 All right. I appreciate the suggestion about the marina, and your last statement makes me feel like a terrible heel, and you're right.
7:52 Speaker 03 Oh. Okay. All right, now we have Mike from Utah. He says, "Mr. Man from Roth. Although not putrid, your HSA advice smells suboptimal. While retaining medical expense receipts for future reimbursement is a great strategy, it makes no sense unless all Roth IRA and 401(k) space is being maxed out. What is the only thing better than a triple tax advantage? Effectively moving triple tax advantage money into Roth tax-free. Instead of retaining receipts, reimburse your medical expenses every year and use that
8:36 Speaker 03 money to increase your Roth IRA money into Roth, which eventually could be spent tax-free on anything, not just for those medical expenses. For those already maxing all tax-advantaged retirement accounts, holding on to receipts makes sense. For most of us, reimbursing as you go while raising your Roth contributions makes more sense. Thanks for all you do."
9:00 Speaker 02 All right, Mike. This is why we do Clark stinks. Do you know, no one has ever made that suggestion ever? And what you're doing is beyond brilliant. Because you're getting the triple tax benefit of the HSA. And at the same time, you freed up money that can get you to the point where you're maxing out your Roth IRA. That's brilliant. Thank you.
9:26 Speaker 03 Yeah. Good suggestion. All right. So now we have Tom from Texas. And he says, Clark doesn't stink, but he neglected to highlight a negative about loans taken out from a 401k plan. I worked in the 401k plan, record keeping and investment industry for 33 years. When a participant takes employee or employer pre-tax money out of a 401k for a loan, the repayments, principal and interest are paid back with after-tax dollars. Then when the participant finally withdraws the money from the 401k as a distribution, the total of the loan payments will once again be taxable dollars.
10:08 Speaker 03 Thus, money paid back to a 401k loan is taxed twice by the federal government.
10:14 Speaker 02 So Tom, I love the intention here, which is to throw up yet one more roadblock about why people shouldn't borrow from a 401k. And I respectfully would point out that the bills that somebody is doing that loan for are things that they would have had to use after-tax dollars for anyway. But the overriding issue is that people who take out one 401k loan tend to take out another and another and another. It's like, once they break the ice, mentally, they start to think of the 401k as their mad money account.
10:54 Speaker 02 And when you keep taking those loans out, there's an enormous opportunity cost in how much money you end up with down the road, because that money's no longer working for you. If you figure two out of three years, the market goes up instead of down, you're having a two-thirds chance that you're going to erode future financial security with that 401k loan. And so 401k loans are best used only for a catastrophe, a catastrophic circumstance that there's no other way to pay for, not a temporary cash flow problem.
11:35 Speaker 03 All right, now we have Kirkland from the state of Washington.
11:41 Speaker 02 I wonder if the middle name is Signature, since that's where Costco started.
11:46 Speaker 03 I bet it is. Okay, so he says, "I've heard two different people ask Clark about energy-saving questions related to heating and cooling their homes. I don't know about your utility company, but my former and current electric cooperatives have resources available to their customers on saving energy. They have rebate information for insulation and energy-saving appliances and the like. Wouldn't you say that they would be a better resource than Clark Howard to advise them on how to conserve energy and save money on their power bill? The Inland Northwest enjoys some of the lowest power rates, but we still like to reduce our energy costs. I'm surprised that in both instances,
12:30 Speaker 03 you didn't refer to them as your utility company."
12:33 Speaker 02 Refer to them too.
12:34 Speaker 03 Yeah, to their utility company. And it says, "Bless your heart."
12:39 Speaker 02 Well, Kirkland of Kirkland Signature, I want to tell you, I love this suggestion. I've actually used rebates available from a power company. I should have mentioned that as a resource. And hopefully, in this brain full of holes I have, I will remember to do that next time.
13:01 Speaker 03 Good. All right, so we also have Kiara from Michigan. And she says, "Clark, you may not stink, but you made me wrinkle my nose. Many public libraries offer patrons access to Consumer Reports, so your listeners may not have to pay to check it out after all if they have a library card. Thanks for all you do. My dad and I love listening to your show."
13:26 Speaker 02 Well, Kiara, thank you very much. And with so many library systems now, the access to Consumer Reports is digital. You don't have to go look at the physical edition. You can actually, for free, well, your tax is paid for the library system, but you can see Consumer Reports. I know that a lot of people that are... Really, under about age 45, look at Consumer Reports as their grandparents' source of information and prefer to go online to find things, who knows where. Consumer Reports does the absolutely best job of anybody I know in their product searches
14:10 Speaker 02 and reviews because they take no money from anybody other than their donors and people who subscribe to it. And the research they do is so thorough. In my TV work, I've been to Consumer Reports facilities in the Northeast three different times, including being on the auto test track and seeing how they do the auto tests. And when I tell you they're thorough, they are thorough.
14:40 Speaker 03 I bet that was fun.
14:41 Speaker 02 Especially when we spun out and the vehicle had to be towed back.
14:46 Speaker 03 I didn't know about that.
14:48 Speaker 02 I was on the track racing in a car that was called the BRZ, a Subaru sports car. It had been a lot of snow and the track was wet and all that. And we went spinning off the track, going round and round and round like you'd see in special effects in a movie. And we went into a snowbank in the vehicle and the poor head of the testing program, Jake, he runs the whole Consumer Reports testing program, Jake Fisher, he was covered in mud when we got out. I mean, it was just a mess. But the BRZ was fun. I don't know that car is made anymore.
15:30 Speaker 03 I don't know what that is. Is this like true confessions? Because I've never heard this story.
15:34 Speaker 02 Why would I tell you? Okay.
15:37 Speaker 03 Just saying.
15:39 Speaker 02 Was that information I should have shared with you at the time?
15:42 Speaker 03 Was that a decade ago? When was this? I'm glad I didn't know. Anyway.
15:47 Speaker 02 I think it was about eight years ago. What's next?
15:49 Speaker 03 All right, we have got Michael from Michigan. He says, Clark, you don't stink, but I do have an idea for the listener who doesn't want their credit card info lingering on websites. Most cards allow a card to be locked through their website or app. Having a dedicated lock card could be a good way to protect yourself from leaked credit card info.
16:12 Speaker 02 Thank you, Michael. This is even more important for you if you have a debit card. Now, you may have heard me talk about how the only reason I have a piece of trash fake Visa or fake MasterCard is to be able to withdraw money from an ATM. I never use it shopping. And I'm able to go on the app of Navy Federal Credit Union and I can lock it or unlock it. And so when I click lock, even if somebody's stolen the information, they can't do anything with it. And as Michael pointed out, this is common with credit cards as well, where you can simply on the app, shut them down cold until you need them.
16:57 Speaker 02 And this is especially valuable with what I call back of the wallet cards, where you occasionally use a card and just keep it active in your credit score and mix, but you don't routinely use it. You lock that card and you're going to be able to prevent the thief who somehow gets a hold of your information and tries to use that card is not going to work. And that is a great suggestion, Michael.
17:25 Speaker 03 All right. And we have Yemi from Florida. Clark, I heard your response to a caller on a recent podcast. It was regarding a listener joining a gym, having to use their debit card or checking account to pay for their membership. You had mentioned joining a no frills gym or opening up a separate bank account to pay for gym membership. I have a gym membership at a certain gym. Okay, all right. Planet Fitness. And I was grandfathered in for so many years to use my credit card. One day, they stated I would have to have given them a debit or checking account to pay moving forward. I did some research and I opened a debit card, bank card account through an app.
18:10 Speaker 02 Go ahead and you name it.
18:11 Speaker 03 Cash App. I keep a decent balance on the card to pay for the gym membership and when it gets low, I transfer additional funds to it. It works great and the gym does not have my direct banking or debit card information. I just wanted to give listeners some alternatives to paying for these types of memberships, which can be difficult to deal with when you cancel the service or the provider goes out of business. Hope this helps. Thanks for all you do. Longtime Clarky.
18:36 Speaker 02 Well, thank you very much. And Planet Fitness, I was a member of for years. Now it's not close to me. And it was so cheap and the place was amazingly clean and they had all the equipment well maintained that I needed to use. But they look, the Planet Fitness places are very, very basic. There's no wood accents anywhere. There's no fancy locker rooms, no spas or anything like that. All it's about is working out really cheaply. And if you're like most people, that you join a gym and then you don't go, at least
19:15 Speaker 02 you're only wasting $15 a month instead of 50 or 99 or 149 or whatever. So it worked well for me and they are not doing that well right now, Planet Fitness.
19:30 Speaker 03 Because you're not going anymore.
19:31 Speaker 02 I don't think it's because of me. I don't know why the company's not doing as well because I don't have any firsthand knowledge in recent years.
19:39 Speaker 03 I think you win a lot, though, when you have a membership.
19:41 Speaker 02 I did, I did.
19:42 Speaker 03 You were dedicated.
19:43 Speaker 02 I was. And there are not just, although they're the biggest, there are a bunch of these no-frills gyms around the country. I strongly recommend the no-frills gyms because they are so inexpensive and the focus is so heavily. On working out. I mean, there's nothing else there other than working out. There's no juice bar or, you know,
20:07 Speaker 03 Juice bar?
20:08 Speaker 02 Yeah, a juice bar, fancy swimming pools or anything like that. It's just about being fit and that's for me.
20:16 Speaker 03 That's the goal.
20:17 Speaker 02 That is the goal. And if I don't work out, you're going to make me go work out.
20:22 Speaker 03 Is that right?
20:23 Speaker 02 Speaking of Clark stinks literally, when I go out for a walk and run and I come back,
20:31 Speaker 02 what's the first thing you tell me to do if I'm within 20 yards of you?
20:35 Speaker 03 Go take a shower?
20:37 Speaker 02 That's right.
20:38 Speaker 03 It's like the dating game.
20:39 Speaker 02 That's your personal Clark stinks about me.
20:42 Speaker 03 Yes, that's true.
20:44 Speaker 02 All right, coming up ahead, we're going to talk about the opposite of being careful with your money. When impulse and emotion gets you financially into trouble.
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23:13 Speaker 02 We gotta have a talk because overwhelmingly Americans in polling are talking about how stressed they are financially. Don't know your personal situation, only you can know that. But if you know, even if you're not that stressed right now, but you've been living a little too much for today. Want to tell you, I read an item in USA Today that survey says 81% of us, 81% of us say that we routinely make impulse buys. And a lot of times, those impulse buys are things that, well, they end up gathering dust. I'm as guilty as anybody else.
23:57 Speaker 02 I'll see something and I'll think, oh, wow, that's great, and buy it. That's why when I go to Costco or Sam's or BJ's Wholesale, I don't get a cart. And I walk around and I put things in my arms that I think I want. And then I get to the point pretty quickly, I can't carry anything else. And I have to say, okay, do I really need another pair of cargo shorts? Probably not. And they go back. I don't just drop them anywhere, by the way. I take them back to where they go because as a member, I want to hold down the cost for all of us. Don't just leave stuff anywhere. By the way, do not leave refrigerator frozen stuff
24:40 Speaker 02 just abandoned somewhere in the store because ultimately that does cost all of us. Anyway, I digress. The impulse thing is just so crazy normal. Do you know one of the things people are really impulsive about? I can't even tell you how many times over my career I've had somebody call me with regrets about buying a car, SUV, pickup truck, whatever. And I was just driving by and I wanted to see the new whatever. And they pull in and wow, they end up going home with it. All right, we ran the numbers. We did this research at Clark.com.
25:23 Speaker 02 Just changing how you buy vehicles over a working lifetime. That change alone, when you hit retirement, will put around a quarter million dollars conservatively in your pocket. Quarter million bucks. How you buy a vehicle, what you buy, how often you buy. The change that that one thing in your life can make, that one change can pile hundreds of thousands of dollars into your financial future. You know, there's an expression in the carpet business that people tire out before the carpet does.
26:08 Speaker 02 That people replace carpet routinely well before its lifespan because they get tired of the color or the style, or they decide to put in hardwoods or whatever. We tire out of vehicles. So although the average age of a vehicle in the United States is the oldest it's ever been because we used to be even more manic in the US about cycling through vehicles. But automakers took care of that by deciding they weren't going to make cheaper vehicles.
26:41 Speaker 02 And so with the average cost of a vehicle now, a whisker above or below 50 grand, $50,000. Is that nuts? People are out of financial necessity, not cycling through vehicles as quickly. But I want you to look at the math we have at Clark.com and you can click on it in our notes and you can see the numbers just staring at you right in the face. And for you to think through, second biggest purchase most of us ever make is transportation vehicles. And it's a stunner. This is all personal preference. This is not a guilt trip.
27:26 Speaker 02 I'm not trying to do a guilt trip. I'm trying to create power in your life. The less you owe, the less obligations you have, you have to pay every month, the more financial security you can build and the less anxiety you have about money over time. If you're a longtime listener or viewer, you've heard me talk from time to time over the years about MPC, the marginal propensity to consume. And it's something that pointy headed economists talk about, that the United States, that we are wired differently than people almost anywhere else in the world.
28:06 Speaker 02 And in most of the world is income rises, your spending may go up, but not in tandem with the income rise. In the United States, MPC actually shows the two of them going up almost together until you get to an ultra-high income. We are consumers. We love to consume. We love to spend. We love to borrow. We love to buy. And the more you can remember that we're just wired that way in our culture and you step back from that, the better for you. Lane, what you got?
28:50 Speaker 03 Well, I was just thinking that maybe you don't need an extra pair of cargo shorts. Yeah, I think you might have about 30.
28:58 Speaker 02 I don't have 30.
29:03 Speaker 03 I'm just saying it's possible.
29:04 Speaker 02 You are such an exaggerator. You know, I never exaggerate. You're such an embellisher and exaggerator.
29:09 Speaker 03 Sure. Okay. We've got Mark in Georgia and he says, recently Clark extolled the virtues of Carvana and mentioned how successful they've become. They've become very profitable as well. According to many industry sources, they now make about $6,800 in profit on average for every vehicle sold. While I don't hold it against a company to make a profit, it makes me wonder what happened to the old days when individuals bought and sold cars directly between themselves. Using a third party like Carvana cost the seller approximately $3,400 and the buyer another $3,400 over a person-to-person sale. Is there any way
29:52 Speaker 03 to go back to the old way of buying a car and saving a ton of money in doing so?
29:58 Speaker 02 Mark, what a great question. And the nature of the country has changed. So historically, first of all, we didn't have all the technology we have now. Carvana doesn't exist in a non-internet era and people used to live much more heavily in smaller towns and rural areas. They knew their neighbors or knew of their neighbors or knew of somebody in the next town or next county. And these sales were highly personal in that people were selling or buying from, selling to or buying from someone they knew or knew of. And it wasn't a stranger-on-stranger
30:40 Speaker 02 transaction. Today, we live overwhelmingly in big urban areas. We have an open marketplace with the internet that's led to a lot of scams that have affected buyers and sellers of different products, but particularly automobiles. And so the market doesn't have the built-in level of trust that it used to have for buying and selling vehicles. So. Buying a vehicle from a stranger, selling one to a stranger is so rare now, it's unreal. So it's really how the US changed and how technology changed.
31:21 Speaker 02 And let's face it, what Carvana has had, that I was just reading a story. It was, I forget which industry publication it was, it was geared towards automobile dealers. There was a hatin' on Carvana article about how much the traditional vehicle dealers hate, hate, hate them because of the market share they're taking and how quickly they're growing. And they've really hurt CarMax too, that was a hybrid of online and in-person. And so people are looking for as frictionless a way of buying a used vehicle, or now Carvana
32:06 Speaker 02 sells new, or selling their own vehicle that they're getting rid of, and they've made it ultra easy. And they make a lot of money doing it. So your point is well made. Whether you buy from Carvana or anybody else, there's the buy-sell spread. It's not like buying or selling a stock or index fund or ETF or mutual fund where you buy them at virtually no cost. It's a whole different thing. It's like, think about houses. Think about how much it costs in commissions and fees and all that, roughly 10% in, 10% out on a house. And vehicles are that same kind of, there's a lot of people involvement in it, and a
32:51 Speaker 02 lot of process, a lot of rehabbing and marketing and all that. So yeah, it is a very expensive part of the process.
33:02 Speaker 03 I hate going to a dealership. I really do.
33:05 Speaker 02 Well, and I've talked in the past about why that's led to the growth. Of the new ways of buying a vehicle, new or used, that are no haggle, clean environments, but old habits do die hard.
33:21 Speaker 03 Okay, we have Kitty in California. She says, "We own a 2004 Toyota Matrix, which runs just fine." But my hus-
33:30 Speaker 02 Twenty-two years old.
33:32 Speaker 03 Yeah.
33:33 Speaker 02 I love that.
33:35 Speaker 03 But she says her husband is feeling more vulnerable on the road because of the lack of safety features that are built in. She says, "I'd like to get a RAV4 Hybrid, but he wants his own personal Waymo, particularly because his night vision is not so great. How many years before such a vehicle might be available to the public? You keep talking about never having to drive in LA traffic again."
33:59 Speaker 02 Okay, so Kitty, living in California, all around you, everywhere you turn, it looks like the only vehicle being sold in America right now, at least in California, is a Tesla. And the advantage of Tesla for your husband is that the FSD, the Full Self-Drive, that's $99 a month, does do roughly 95% of the driving for you. You just put in your destination, you hit a button, and it does drive for you. It takes a bit of getting used to, and some people are terrified of the lack of control,
34:39 Speaker 02 but you can always take control by grabbing the steering or pressing the brake, and then take over and drive it like cars used to drive, or most cars still do. Toyota does, though, as a very helpful thing to your husband, has on all their vehicles a safety suite, and if you were to get a RAV4 Hybrid, it has the ability to drive for you on freeways. On the 110 or the 5 or the whatever, because it's all duh in California before you give the freeway number. And it will do a lot of that driving for you and has great
35:22 Speaker 02 safety features on it. So if something like the equivalent of an almost Waymo, which is where Tesla is now with the FSD, that would be, it's a one horse race right now for that from Tesla. But if just having an enormous suite of safety features that greatly reduce the chances of being in an accident, any Toyota will have those. Our oldest just went from a 14 or 15 year old Prius to a RAV4 hybrid, and she can't believe it because her Prius didn't even have a backup camera. And now the the RAV4 hybrid has every kind of
36:06 Speaker 02 safety feature known to humankind, except for one thing. She was parked in a parking lot and somebody in a pickup truck backed into her nearly new.
36:17 Speaker 03 Yeah, and didn't, he didn't even notice. He was in a huge truck.
36:20 Speaker 02 He was in such a big pickup truck, he didn't know he had damaged his truck and hit her. And she had to jump out and say, you know, you just hit me. He said, no, I didn't.
36:29 Speaker 03 But he was nice. He was definitely nice.
36:31 Speaker 02 He was nice. He just didn't even realize. You think about the size differential between one of these giant dual cab pickup trucks.
36:39 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:40 Speaker 02 And even a RAV4. Imagine her old Prius.
36:44 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
36:45 Speaker 02 It would have crumpled.
36:46 Speaker 03 It would have been totaled. Okay, so we have Adeline. Is that how you pronounce it? I think her name. That's a pretty name. Adeline in North Carolina. Hi, Clark. I've heard you talk about low cost prescription options for humans, but do you have any recommendations for pets? I recently adopted a two year old cat that the shelter said was perfectly healthy. But soon after his adoption, I found out he has feline asthma and will need a daily inhaler for life.
37:16 Speaker 02 I've never heard of that.
37:18 Speaker 03 Yeah, I've heard of that. I have. His inhaler costs $250 a month as prescribed by his vet. Thankfully, I have a good job and I can afford it, but this really hurts. Do you have any recommendations on how I might be able to get this medication cheaper or be willing to share what you have used for your dogs? Oh, boy. I read it might be possible to order the medicine from Canada or the UK at a discount, but I don't know much about this. Thank you so much for your advice. And by the way, he has been the sweetest, most perfect cat outside of this one issue.
37:53 Speaker 02 I am so glad that in spite of the asthma problem, you're thrilled with the adoption. Okay, so this is really low hanging fruit for me, your question. Where do we fill our dog Kirkland Signature's meds and our other dog Winston Churchill's meds at the Costco wholesale pharmacy counter? The warehouse clubs sell a huge percent of pet meds now in the US because they do a similar markup or maybe the same for the pet meds as they
38:33 Speaker 02 do for human meds. And the warehouse clubs all have these tight systems on how they price scripts. So I would compare the cost of the feline asthma medicine at whatever the warehouse clubs you're a member of. And if you're not a member of one, there are now several online sellers that specialize in discounted meds for pets. As for buying them from Canada, there are so many people who, humans, who are buying medicine from Canada. One of my brothers buys a medicine that's really expensive in the United States
39:13 Speaker 02 from a pharmacy in Canada and has cut his cost about 70% buying the medicine from Canada instead of the US. And we have the world's highest prescription drug prices by far. And this is one of the tools that people do. You mentioned the UK.
39:37 Speaker 02 Buying medicines outside the US, people in Southern California and Tucson, Arizona, very heavily cross into Mexico to fill prescription drugs. I will say that there are more problems when people fill prescriptions in Mexico because the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry is not up to standards that you can really feel comfortable. You've got to know who you're buying them from if you do cross the border into Mexico to fill prescriptions. But the idea is you just don't have to sit and take that $3,000 a year cost.
40:20 Speaker 02 You should be able to shop around and find a better deal. And I want to tell you how much I enjoyed being with you today on our Clark Stinks podcast.
40:33 Speaker 03 I really enjoyed that Clark Stinks part, yeah.
40:36 Speaker 02 How come you didn't do any?
40:38 Speaker 03 I'm holding back.
40:41 Speaker 02 I mean, you can imagine, longtime listeners and viewers would want to hear from you.
40:45 Speaker 03 No, I have very few complaints, honestly.
40:47 Speaker 02 Oh.
40:48 Speaker 03 But thanks for having me.
40:51 Speaker 02 Absolutely.
40:52 Speaker 03 Krista will be back for the next Clark Stinks.
40:54 Speaker 02 But you'll be with us next Monday and Wednesday. And I'm jealous, we're working, she's playing.
41:00 Speaker 03 I know. What's up with that?
41:02 Speaker 02 I know. Anyway, have an absolutely wonderful weekend. Know we serve you all weekend long. One of the things that is something people look forward to from us are our newsletters that are free. We have the Clark Newsletter, Clark Deals Newsletter, and our Clark Investment Newsletter. These are all free if you ever subscribe to them and later you're like, I don't see why Clark thinks they're so good. I'm wasting my time with this. Or you're going to really love it and you're going to tell other people about them and especially the price. And you're not going to get spammed by us. You're only going to get what you ask for.
41:45 Speaker 02 All you do is go to Clark.com/newsletters and it's all part of what we do, empowering you with knowledge so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. And here's your assignment for the weekend. Go have fun.
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42:40 Speaker 06 Upfront payment of $45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months, or $180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50GB may slow when network is busy. See terms.
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